The demonstration starts and runs for a second or so, then fades out to the main menu (no items are selectable) which then fades into another demonstration level. The process repeats at regular intervals.

Antares crash report. 10.6.6, intel i7.

The game froze in Chapter 17, just as my transport was landing on the Audemedon world, unfortunately before the planet was captured! A force quit brought me back to desktop.
All the stations had been captured and all hostiles eliminated. I had a large fleet, but was still able to build.

The maximum number of objects warning popped up once during the game sometime earlier.
It might just be a goog old fashioned Ares Freeze :duh: